


Silences (Take Three, From the Top!)

by ManyWords



Series: Lord & Wild [2]
Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, linked universe- fandom
Genre: Confusion, Gen, Lord is pre-calamity Wild, Self-Doubt, Soo, because i wanted to show Lord and Wild meeting but couldn't fit it into the main story, im sorry, lord is an anxious mess, they have anxiety, this was made, uhh enjoy, wild is an anxious mess
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-17
Updated: 2019-08-20
Packaged: 2020-09-05 21:02:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20279767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ManyWords/pseuds/ManyWords
Summary: There was a boy named Link.He failed. He died. And that was that.He's not allowed to rest.Nope. Now he has to share a body with his future self. What could possibly go wrong?(spoiler: it all goes wrong)Or, how Wild and Lord meet/learn to trust each other.("Silences" is a work detailing how Lord and Wild learn to trust each other and learn more about their past/future self, over the course of Breath of the Wild, Linked Universe, and possibly Breath of the Wild 2. I hope this clears up any confusion!)





	1. Lord is confused and everything is (metaphorically) on fire

**Author's Note:**

> Duality has gotten so much love, like, wow! Thanks everyone! i couldn't fit this into the main work, so now its a series! yayayyyyy  
italics is thoughts/ lord and wild talking in their head, bold is sign language

Link has no idea what is going on. 

The last thing he remembers is… failing. Destruction, pain, death. Zelda’s face, her hands holding him close. Screaming. 

Lasers. 

Here, though. Here, he feels perfectly fine. But he died, didn’t he? Is this the afterlife, then? Where was he? All he could see was… darkness, and he couldn’t exactly feel anything either. He was just… thoughts, right now, a collection of ideas and beliefs and morals. He couldn’t move, and he couldn’t see, and he couldn’t hear. 

Somehow he is fine with this. 

It takes a while- Maybe hours, maybe days- for him to be able to see something. There’s light, and it’s like he’s waking up. Except… it’s not him. It’s like he’s in someone else’s head, looking through their eyes and seeing the world through them. It should have felt wrong and intrusive, but it seems natural to him, as natural as swimming through rivers or climbing trees. 

As the eyes he is watching through open, thoughts that aren’t his slowly start flooding into his conscience. It’s like hearing someone speak through water at first, but then it gets clearer as the person seems to wake up, eventually sounding like his own voice but lighter and more child-like. 

He doesn’t like to talk, and rarely does so. But he can tell that there’s someone else in his mind that’s not him (Or is he in their mind?) and he feels more at ease than he has in a long time. If he is able to hear their thoughts, they should be able to hear his. 

_ ‘Hello?’ _

He feels himself being moved, as if he had sat up, but he is not in control of his movements. He’s not in control, and someone else is moving his body for him. 

The voice-the one he had heard thoughts from, the one that sounds like him- speaks, except it’s outside of his mind, like talking aloud. The voice is raspier now, much like his own voice, from disuse, and it’s full of confusion. Caution. 

“Zelda? It that you?”

_ ‘I am not the princess.’ _

“Then who are you? Another champion? How did you get in my head-” The voice cuts off, voice fading into nothing, probably due to not being used so much in a long period of time. Link can still sense the other’s confusion, but there is no spoken words now.

_ ‘I am a champion, yes.’ _ Link doesn’t like sharing this information- if people don’t recognize him as the supposed hero, he can live more normally alongside them- but he was asked a direct question, and his knight’s training requires him to answer it honestly. 

He can feel his hands moving, but once again, he is not in control. His hands move in specific ways- soon enough, he recognizes it as the sign language he uses instead of talking. It’s different, reading sign from your own hands, but he manages. 

**“-Where are you? I thought there were only four divine beasts. Who are you, then?” **

Link is tempted to ask why the other knows sign (he was one of the rare few who had to learn it, to combat the way his mouth refused to form words sometimes) but it is not his place, and he was asked a question.  _ ‘There are only four Divine Beasts. I am Link, Princess Zelda’s appointed knight.’ _

The other falls silent, but Link can strangely feel their emotions. Has he fallen out of line? Said something wrong? Was he out of place? He cannot think of anyone besides the Princess and the King that are above him, and the other is neither, so how would he have said something wrong? 

He feels his (or was it the other’s?) hands shake as they sign. 

**“You can’t be him. ** ** _I’m _ ** **Link. Or at least, I was.”**

Link… doesn’t really know what to do with that. But he’s good at making plans on the go, and he’s good at pretending he knows what he’s doing for others sakes. He can practically smell the panic rising from the other person. 

_ ‘It’s not the weirdest thing I’ve seen. How about we each start from what happened before this and we can go from there?’ _

Link feels the other take a deep breath, trying to calm themselves. Their hands still shake, enough to make their signs harder to understand. 

**“I just… went to sleep and when I woke up I guess you were here?” **

That doesn’t help anything, obviously. Link supposes there’s nothing to be done. He doesn’t… do well, with emotions, but he can tell the other is panicking slightly, and he doesn’t know how to fix it. 

_ ‘That’s alright. I was protecting Princess Zelda… and I think I died. But now I’m here.’ _

**“How did you die?” ** The panic is replaced by urgency, and Link finds himself answering the question before he can stop himself. 

_ ‘I was- I was shot, by a guardian.’  _ Link wants to smack himself for the mental stutter coming through his thoughts. 

An influx of thoughts, mostly “nonononono” come from the other person, and he knows he’s said something wrong.  **“What year is it?”**

The question is random, but he feels the other’s panic as if it were his own, so he answers hastily. 

**“Okay, this is fine.” ** The other pauses and takes more deep breaths.  **“Alright, so I think you time-travelled. You’re about 100 years in the future from where you were.” **

_ ‘Pardon me-?’ _

**“No, wait, let me finish. You said your name is Link, right? Either your a manifestation of a conscious that I don’t have, or you’re a different person that’s somehow in my head.” ** The other person takes another breath, opening their eyes, allowing Link to see.  **“I think… you’re like, the me from before. The only thing I can think of is that I’m screwing up so badly that someone sent a better version of me to help me out.” **

_ ‘That makes absolutely no sense. So what, we’re the same person… but from before and after the Calamity?’ _

**“Do you have a better explanation, Mr. Skeptical? Look, either I’m actually insane or you’re me from before. And I can’t afford to have voices in my head right now, I have to much shit to do, okay?” **

Link, for all his faults, knows when to remain silent. (He doesn’t know what to say most of the time, and he has to be perfect- he has to be, for the sake of Hyrule, for the sake of the princess, for the sake of his family.)

The other- supposedly an alternate version of himself- remains silent as well, but they are panicked, and their voice is shaky when they try to speak again. 

“Look, I’m sorry, okay? I just- I don’t know. So you’re Link too, right?” Their voice fades off a bit again, and the other tries to force it to work. 

_ ‘You don’t have to speak.’ _

“No, no, I have to practice. I can’t keep expecting everyone to learn sign just for me. It’s selfish. Uh, we’re gonna need nicknames, cause it’s getting really weird calling you ‘Link’ in my head.”

Link hasn’t earned many nicknames. Titles, yes. Respected positions, yes. Nicknames? No. He definitely doesn’t want his nickname to be something along the lines of “Chosen Hero” or “Savior of Hyrule”. There were some insults thrown his way- one of which coming to mind easily, what with the amount of times it had been uttered in the soldier’s barracks before he was given a room near the princess. 

“Lord” for how he supposedly acted better than the rest of the soldiers (even if he wasn’t on their level, even if he never asked for this position). “Lord” for how he was silent, stoic, like he was playing at being a noble (he grew up on a farm with his family near the forest, he wants so desperately to go back). “Lord” for how everything was handed to him, how everything always worked out for the ‘chosen hero’ (they didn’t know about the sleepless nights or the near-brushes with death). 

“Lord” for someone forced into a position of power, a position he didn’t want, “Lord” for someone who so suddenly had everything taken away.

It may be petty, but he wants the name turned around, used innocently, spoken off kind lips. 

_ ‘I can be Lord, if you like.’ _

**“Lord, huh?” ** The other says, switching back to sign and naive curiosity coming through.  **“You know what, I like it. I don’t know what I can be called, though.” **

_ ‘You can be Link, if I have a different name.’ _

The other shakes his head.  **“No, that was more your name then it ever was mine. We can find something along the way.”**

_ ‘If you prefer so. Do you have a plan for what you- I mean, we, are going to do next?’ _

The other yet-to-be-nicknamed person scoffs, though it’s more a laugh.  **“You think I have a plan? Wow, you obviously don’t know me.” **


	2. Trust Issues Are Fun! (lol nope)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yiga Clan and trust issues. What could possibly go wrong?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone for all the support on Duality and Silences so far! Honestly, I fell in love with this AU and now its all I write.   
To avoid confusion:  
Duality is the main story throughout Lord and Wild's adventures. It will include most parts of the game, and then Lord and Wild meeting the other Links later in the story. It's scattered right now and doesn't have a plot, but it will be starting from the very beginning soon.   
Silences is a bunch of one-shots, two-shots, or three-shots involving Lord and Wild and basically filling in some gaps that Duality will fail to cover.   
Another work involving Wild and Lord is "Drunken Mishaps" (working title). Drunken Mishaps isn't posted yet, but it will involve a lot of shenanigans between Wild and Lord. It's also how this entire idea started on Discord.   
The stories are mostly separate from each other, but Silences and Duality do rely on each other. 
> 
> Anyways, thanks for continuing to read my rambles about my best boys Lord and Wild! Comments/Kudos are always appreciated but never necessary!

The stable is busy, and this is why Wild refuses to rent a bed and stay there.

It's not like they don't have enough rupees- diamonds sell for a lot and Sidon usually sneaks extra money into their bag- but Wild still refuses to sleep there. It's less about the money and more about the crowded nature of the stable. There's already three beds occupied, and five people milling about, and something about the situation makes Wild uncomfortable. 

Lord, of course, is having none of this. He wouldn't admit it, but he wanted to sleep in a real bed for once, even if it's the cheap mattress of the stable. Yes, there was people, but Lord seriously doubted any of them would try to murder them in their sleep, and if they did, the most definitely wouldn't have the skills to sneak past Wild's keen ears.

_ 'We're already hurt, Wild, a night in a bed would do us some good.' _

"We'll be fine." 

_ 'What's the matter with the stable, anyways?' _

"I- I just don't like how there's so many people, okay? Besides, we need to get moving. It's been a month since I woke up, and I've only set two Divine Beasts free. We need to move faster."

_ 'You can't keep going at full speed forever. You need to rest and recover.' _

Wild scoffs quietly, guiding his horse out through the gates. "Like you don't run yourself ragged."

_ 'Let me be a hypocrite. Besides, this isn't only affecting you. I'm kind of stuck here to, if you didn't notice.' _

There's the briefest falter in Wild's steps before he continues again. "I'm sorry if you're hurt. We can rest once we free Vah Rudania, okay? We'll go back to Hateno for a night."

It's a compromise, and one Lord doesn't like at that, but it's the best he'll get out of Wild, because they're both famous for their stubbornness.

_ 'Alright. Let's see if we can get some elixirs from someone here. We can't make it to Goron City without them.' _

"We can make some along the way."

_ 'Or, we could pay the extra sixty rupees and not have to scavenge for lizards while you get us burnt to death. _ '

"Look, I've already got two on hand. That'll be enough if everything goes well."

_ 'Since when does everything go well with you?' _

"Since when did you get so cheeky?" Wild retorts, starting to mount his horse. "Look, I don't trust the people here, okay?"

' _ You don't trust anyone.’ _

"Not true!"

' _ Alright then, name at least ten people you can trust.' _

"Uhm... You, Mipha, Urbosa, Daruk, Revali if he's in the right mood, ummm... Sidon? Zelda."

Lord mentally corrects him, adding Sidon's and Zelda's titles in front of their names.  _ 'That's only seven, and five of those are dead, they don't count. Why can't you just talk to someone here?' _

"They could be Yiga, or they could just hate me-well, you technically- or they could just be bad people-"

_ 'You have very serious trust issues, don't you? You can't do everything alone!' _

"Well I kinda fucking have to, don't I?!"

They both fall silent, and Lord keeps his thoughts to himself as Wild urges his horse to go faster.

It takes them a solid hour to reach the second trail marker, at which Wild regretfully sends his horse back, and at which he pauses to finally down one of his elixirs. 

"Sorry I snapped at you. I just... We can't afford to be distracted with things right now, and everyone seems to want something from us."

'You had your reasons, I suppose.' Lord can feel Wild's relief at the statement, and feels better when they're not at odds. 'Let's get going, then. I don't want to be in this heat any longer than necessary.'

"Trust me, I agree whole _ heat _ edly!"

Lord groans, and mentally smacks himself in the face.

"Excuse me! Sir!" A voice calls at them, up the trail a bit and barely visible. "Please, sir, do you have any fireproof elixirs? My friend is in desperate need of them!"

Wild, despite his apparent issues with strangers, hurries to the girl beckoning them closer. Lord assumes it’s his need to help everyone and fix everything driving him forward and towards the unfamiliar strangers. 

Wild has already pulled an elixir from the slate and hides the technology safely away. He slows as he gets closer, however, eyes scanning for the rest of the girl’s party. 

_ ‘Where are they? I don’t like this.’ _

Wild silently nods his agreement, and moves a hand closer to his bow. 

“Thank goodness you’re here!” The girl appears in front of them, and neither of them can tell where she came from, which is enough to have them both itching for a weapon. “Thanks for coming so quickly! My friend really needs your help! Here, this way.” 

They follow her warily. There’s something about the situation that seems wrong to them, but they’re probably overdue for another drink of elixir, and the heat muddles their senses. 

_ ‘She’s shady, don’t you think?’ _

**“We can outrun her if we need to.” ** With the girl’s back to them, Wild is free to sign.  **“I’ve got ancient arrows if need be. Quick and painless.” **

Lord hates the idea of killing a person, but they both know that if it becomes necessary, Wild will not hesitate. The ancient arrows grant a small mercy, but a mercy that Lord prefers over other methods. 

“Come on, he’s just around this corner!” 

They continue following her warily, trying to stay alert through the heat assaulting them. 

The turn the corner around a rock, but the girl has disappeared, and no one else is there.

There's the slightest noise behind them- gravel shifting under weight. Then, before either of them can react, their eyes are covered by a hand and a knife point digs slightly into their throat.

Lord can hear Wild cursing mentally. 

"Listen here, hero" The girls voice is nastier now, all hints of a sugar-honey facade gone. "We can't have you running around and trying to kill our master. Beg, and maybe I'll make your death painless." 

They stay silent, minds racing to figure out a plan, but the girl interrupts them again. "Oh, right. You're mute. Sorry, I forgot the little hero was _broken_" 

A shove pushes them forward, and their face is smashed in the rocks of the cliff. The girl's tone is mocking, sinister. She keeps her grip firm, and steals their weapons away. They stiffen, both of them silently fuming at the girl's mockery of their usual silence. 

Wild stays deathly still for a moment, still enough to make the Yiga member poke them. "Hey, you dead already? I didn't even get to have any fun!."

Her apparent amusement doesn't last long, because Wild tucks his knees against the wall and pushes off in one swift movement, successfully freeing up his vision and hands. The girl snarls and grabs her weapon, disappearing into red smoke for a split second before reappearing behind them. They lunge to the side, grabbing their slate and freezing the girl in stasis. It gives Wild enough time to grab his bow and pull out an ancient arrow, quickly shooting the girl and closing his eyes as she disappeared.

They both sigh in relief,and despite knowing there wouldn't be any blood, they are both thankful when they quickly gather up their weapons and move forward on the trail. 

"This is why we don't trust people, Lord, okay?" 

_ 'That was one person.'  _

"Yea, and there's dozens more out there. We can't afford to die until we kill Ganon, alright? Everyone's counting on us."

_ 'On you, you mean.' _

"Shut up. You did just fine."

_ 'Just fine at leaving you with ruins? Yea, I did just great, didn't I.' _

"Stop that. Wasn't your fault."

Lord sighs, choosing not to respond and trying to not think about the girl they just killed. The argument will go in circles for hours if he doesn't stop now, and then they'll both end up feeling bad. 

_ 'It's really hot. Do we have more elixirs?' _

Wild spots some Octorocs ahead, and starts climbing to avoid them. "Yea, give me a moment. We'll have to cook some more when we get into town."

_ 'Or we could buy some armor.' _

"Are you kidding me? You said that suit was hella expensive, I'm not wasting rupees. We die like men."

_ 'Yea, yea, whatever. Let's get going.' _


End file.
